Classic Poem

In Africa's midmost reaches, dumb and torrid,
Where virgin lakes their opulent crystal spread,
By wastes of tangled foliage rankly florid,
Of old I raised to the sun my shining forehead,
From cavernous earthy glooms that genii tread.
Here since primeval periods I have sundered
Hot banks that brute ferocity roamed and plundered,
Speeding, where turmoils of white cataract thundered,
Toward lands my rich benignities have fed.

To these I have brought all nutritive existence,
Alluvial benediction, priceless cheer;
Against aridity, patient in resistance,
My current, with unconquerable persistence,
Has fought through many a prehistoric year.
The light, the life, the spirit of my dominion,
Alike I have lured the wild stork's wearied pinion,
Or in monotonous deserts Abyssinian
The yellow ensanguined lions that prowled near.

But journeying southward in strong exultation,
I attained that realm whose majesties are flown,
Egypt, with calm imperial sequestration
Uttering the genius of a mighty nation,
Gathering her massive grandeurs near my own,
Built by laborious droves of captives lowly,
I watched her dull magnificence greaten slowly
To shapes of grim sarcophagi looming holy,
Or grave miraculous palaces of stone.

I flowed by towering cities that have shaded
My stream remotelier than all record saith,
With walls where hieroglyphs clung interbraided,
And avenues of tall sphinxes colonnaded
Against the rainless heaven, serene of breath.
With temples reared by sovereignties tyrannic,
Gray mausoleums and monoliths titanic,
Frighting, in their tranquillity talismanic,
Oblivion from the retinue of death!

I saw vast gods, for centuries unmolested,
With fluted beards and bestial forms below;
Quaint cornices where the sacred sparrow nested;
Dense bands of ponderous pillars, lotus-crested,
Thick-scrolled with many a weird intaglio;
Entablatures that showered among my sedges
The blood of quivering victims from their edges,
And those bold pyramids whose colossal wedges
Not even an earthquake's arm could overthrow!

If fame might beam undimmed on history's pages,
Thus Karnak, Thebes, Alexandria, Memphis would!
What dynasties that reached through shadowy ages!
What learning among papyri of old sages!
What warriors battling for the civil good!
Yet in obscurity whence no hand releases,
How is that power and splendor fallen to pieces
Of lofty Ptolemies, lovely Berenices!
Where is Cleopatra, star of womanhood?

Mute are the bacchanal feasts that filled my valleys
With storms of dulcimers and with mirthful din;
Dead are my blossoming citrons, my palm-alleys;
Lost are the pomps of my luxurious galleys,
With Nubian oarsmen clad in panther-skin.
Fled are the beauteous herds for Isis fatted;
In sandy burial or with moist weeds matted
Lie ruinous frieze or tumbled caryatid,
Once reared to Osiris and his awful kin!

Propylons, grottos, hypogeums, medallions,
The marvel of all has vanished as it rose;
Dusk armies glimmering in ornate battalions,
Monarchs who blazed with gems while sinewy stallions
Drew them in radiant cars to meet their foes —
All, all have passed, and in their desolate places
The ironic present my domain disgraces;
Yet, ah! what land in rivalling wonder traces
Memories like these of my dead Pharaohs!